Hermione flopped down into the compartment across from Neville and Padma. She groaned as she settled into the seat, having just finished her first patrol as a prefect. She was fairly certain that the year was going to be even more stressful.

Ron had been made the other Gryffindor prefect. Hermione wasn't sure what Professor McGonagall was thinking. Ron wouldn't have been her first, or even second, choice.

Neville would have been Hermione's first choice. He was kind, studious, and everything that a student should be. But there was the little matter of his classmates not respecting him. Even so, he was better than Ron.

Dean Thomas would have been her second choice. Seamus was out due to his uncanny ability to catch even innocuous things on fire. But Ron was at the bottom of her list if he even made it.

"Bad patrol?" Neville asked. He'd been informed of her prefect status the minute she had found out.

"You have no idea. Ron spent the whole time complaining. He was so excited to be a prefect. And now all he wants to do is have the status without any of the responsibility." She leant forward onto her hands, trying to ignore reality.

"Why did he even get to be prefect?" Padma asked.

Both Hermione and Neville shrugged. They didn't have any ideas. Even Harry wasn't sure, though it was obvious he was relatively hurt since his best friend was a prefect and he wasn't. Hermione suspected that it was an effort to keep his life as stress-free as possible, though there wasn't a good way to say that.

"I'm just glad it isn't me," Neville said. "I don't think I could work on my potions the way I need to and handle all the things a prefect has to do."

"Same here," Padma said. "Not that I couldn't handle it, but it would cut into my time drastically. And I've already got things that I want to research."

Hermione smiled. She was studious, but she wasn't quite like Ravenclaws. They were innately curious and wanted to learn for the sake of learning. It was truly fascinating to see the way they functioned. And Hermione was glad to be friends with Padma, even if she thought that she could easily go overboard.

"I'm actually looking forward to the distraction," she said.

"Viktor?" Neville asked Padma.

"What else?"

"When you two start dating someone seriously, I get to tease you about it," Hermione said. "It's only fair."

The two of them smirked. They were only fifteen. It wasn't as if they had any plans on dating someone the way that Hermione was. And they weren't sure that with the way things were going, they would date someone like that soon.

"When that happens we'll be sure to let you know," Neville said sarcastically.

"I'll know."

The rest of the ride up to Hogwarts was relatively calm. Hermione found that she had missed Neville and Padma just as much as Ron and Harry. And possibly more than Ron. But in the carriages up to the castle, she made a point to ride with the boys.

"How's Neville?" Harry asked.

"He seems to be doing well," Hermione said. "I'm sorry to say I wrote him about as much as I wrote you guys."

Hermione stared her plate down as she tried to drown out the voice of the pink toad. Umbridge was a horrible woman, and it radiated off her without her even having to speak. But speak she did.

"What's she mean by that?" Harry mumbled.

"She means that the ministry is watching us," Hermione muttered to her plate as food materialised before them.

The feast was more somber than years past. Hermione wished that she and Neville could go sit at the Ravenclaw table. But the sorting feast was one of the two times when house loyalties were strictly enforced, even if it was mostly by the students.

She was so glad when the feast was over and she was able to go to her room. She dug through her stuff for the letter she had started for Viktor the day before. It was already about four feet long, but she found that she had so much to say.

She'd written about Harry's trial, and how ridiculous it was that Harry couldn't even save his own cousin from Dementors because of the statute of secrecy. It seemed like her mother was onto something. She asked for any recommendations of history records that she could use to help.

She then talked about cleaning up a house that had been empty for far too many years for it to be comfortable. Doxy infestations were one of the least of her worries. The dark artefacts that littered the house were one of the most pressing issues on her mind.

Hermione was aware of the way they taught the dark arts at Durmstrang. She had half a mind to ask if it would be possible to include him in their efforts. But she knew that there were quite a few members of the order who were sceptical of him.

She wrote about the responsibilities of being a prefect, even though she only had half a day under her belt. She expressed her nervousness about being able to keep up with her studies and all the other things she needed to do.

Pouring her heart out on the parchment was easy, but she found that she didn't get the relief that she wanted. She pulled out the ballpoint pen and held it over her arm as she thought about everything.

Viktor?

I'm here.

Hermione smiled. He could be silly when he felt like it. And it appeared that he felt a little silly right then.

Where else would you be? I hope you haven't lost an arm, she teased.

If I do, you'll be the first to know. But I'm fine.

I miss you.

She missed the way he smelt, a combination of sunshine, grass, and what she liked to think of as happiness. She missed the way he would fold her into his arms whenever she was stressing about something. She missed him.

I miss you too. It's less fun to play quidditch without you watching me.

You just mean that it's less fun without my parents to cheer shamelessly for you and ask questions that only you can answer.

Perhaps. But I find that I keep looking for a girl with wild brown hair in the stands. And you're not there.

If it's any consolation, I keep looking for a ship in the lake. And it's not there. And we've only been here a day.

Hermione was sure that by the end of the year she would be more used to looking out at the lake, and only getting a glimpse of the giant squid if anything breached the surface of the water. But at the time, it was hard to remember that everything was going to be different.

I'll see you as soon as I can, Viktor promised.

And I have a letter for you. I'm not quite done with it, but you should get it by the end of the week.

She could almost feel his smile spread across his face. While writing each other the way they did every day, she almost burst every time she got a letter from him. She was almost certain that he felt the same way.

I look forward to it, Viktor wrote.

Go to sleep. You need your rest.

Only as long as you promise me that you'll get enough sleep too.

Deal.

Hermione smiled as Viktor's words disappeared from her skin. He only did that when he was going to sleep and didn't want to spend hours looking at her words. She waved her wand and the ink vanished. She grabbed her pyjamas and headed to the bathroom.

"How was your summer?" Lavender Brown asked.

"Pretty good. I managed to take my parents to a quidditch game."

Lavender looked confused. "Aren't your parents muggles?"

Hermione nodded. "Just because the anti-muggle charms on the world cup are so strong they would head home even if they had tickets doesn't mean that all the games are warded that well."

Lavender thought it over. "I'm glad you got that chance. It's nice to go to a game with your family."

"Even if your mother decides that she's going to single-handedly overthrow the statute of secrecy," Hermione said under her breath.

She got ready for bed and curled up under her covers. As she drifted off to sleep she wondered what Viktor would do if he had to deal with Umbridge.

A/N: So I discovered that Umbridge was a Hufflepuff when she was at Hogwarts. Interesting tidbit of information. I don't know how I feel about that since she's one of the major villains of the series. On one hand, it does add to the complexity of the houses. On the other, she doesn't strike me as a typical Hufflepuff. I guess I should be more open minded.